Pala-isip

From the Philippine Daily Inquirer. MANILA, Philippines—In the aftermath of the massacre of 57 people, brother turned against brother in the Ampatuan clan as the family faced multiple murder charges and pondered whose head should roll, a court was told Wednesday. Afraid that he would be jailed, Zaldy Ampatuan was prepared to tag his younger brother Andal Ampatuan Jr. as the man responsible for the worst political violence in the nation’s history, said former househelp Lakmudin Saliao. Continuing his testimony before Judge Jocelyn Solis-Reyes at Camp Bagong Diwa in Bicutan, Saliao testified that lawyer Sigfrid Fortun advised Zaldy, then governor of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), not to admit anything and leave the matter to the lawyers. Last week, Saliao testified that Ampatuan Jr., the mayor of Datu Unsay town nicknamed Unsay, carried out the family decision to waylay on Nov. 23, 2009, a convoy of a political rival contesting the gubernatorial seat in Maguindanao in t...

So yesterday we got news that Justice Secretary Alberto Agra has cleared Gov. Zaldy Ampatuan of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao and his uncle, Maguindanao Vice Gov. Akmad Ampatuan Sr., of the massacre of the 57 people in Maguindanao. Justice Secretary Alberto Agra photo from The Philippine Daily Inquirer . The justice secretary said that their alibi that there were not in Maguindanao at the time of the murder was good enough to drop charges on them. Kind of like saying that GMA did not cheat in the elections because she didn't stuff the ballot herself. Yeah right. When the decision was made, state prosecutors led by Chief State Prosecutor Claro Arellano Monday protested the resolution that Agra issued on the night of April 16 absolving the two Ampatuans and walked out . The decision also led to protests and The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) urged the public to wear black to express “rage and disappointment” over the decision of Justice Secret...

From the Philippine Daily Inquirer. =================== DAVAO CITY—A lawyer of the powerful Ampatuans has come out swinging against the woman who, he said, the clan helped make President. Philip Pantojan said Malacañang dropped the Ampatuans like a hot potato—and even backed the filing of rebellion charges against them despite the purported lack of evidence—in an effort to save face. Speaking with reporters on Wednesday, Pantojan said the Ampatuans were surprised that President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s administration turned its back on them despite the purported benefits it had received from the clan. “The government is like Cinderella or Snow White … [It wants to] live happily ever after,” he said. Pantojan said Malacañang had forgotten that the influence of the clan led by Andal Ampatuan Sr. helped make “Gloria” President in 2004. He pointed out that the Ampatuans’ home province of Maguindanao produced a zero vote for actor Fernando Poe Jr., the opposition standard-bear...

From the Philippine Daily Inquirer . ====================== MANILA, Philippines – The military expressed surprise at how powerful weapons and thousands of bullets supposed to be kept in the government armory ended up virtually in the backyard of the Ampatuan clan. Wearing bulletproof vests, soldiers and police the other day dug up antitank weapons, assault rifles and machine guns from a vacant lot a few hundred meters from one of the houses of the Ampatuan family—a known political ally of President Macapagal-Arroyo—in Shariff Aguak in Maguindanao province. Some of the firearms and the boxes of ammunition bore the markings of “Department of National Defense Arsenal,” “PNP [Philippine National Police] Camp Crame,” police said. Sen. Rodolfo Biazon, former AFP chief of staff, said he was “aghast” at the find and said he would ask for a Senate investigation next week on who was responsible for giving such a huge arms cache presumably to the Ampatuans. “Only the military can have this weapon...

I found these photos from a friend of a friend. Warning, the following photos are not suitable for children. Make sure you protect your computer lest your vomit damages your keyboard. If you think this massacre is appalling, just remember that this is just one of the many types of massacres that happen in the Philippines. Things like this happens almost every week, we just don't hear about it. Here's the interview given by Buluan Vice Mayor Esmael Mangudadatu describing what happened to his wife. "My wife's private parts were slashed four times, after which they fired a bullet into it. They speared both of her eyes, shot both her breasts, cut off her feet, fired into her mouth. I could not begin to describe the manner by which they treated her." Ready?

From the Philippine Daily Inquirer . ===================== (Editors note: This story appeared Thursday on the website of the Qatar-based Arab news organization Al-Jazeera) A man who says he was a witness to Monday’s massacre in the southern Philippines has told Al-Jazeera how he was ordered to kill members of a rival political clan—including women and children—and to make sure no evidence was left behind. The witness, who identified himself only as “Boy,” said he was among more than 100 armed men who held up a convoy of political campaigners and journalists before taking them to a remote mountainous area where they were then killed. Speaking to Al-Jazeera’s correspondent Marga Ortigas, “Boy” said the orders had come directly from Andal Ampatuan Jr., a local mayor and a member of a politically powerful clan with close ties to the Philippines president. “Datu Andal himself said, he said to us: Anyone from the Mangudadatu clan—women or children—should be killed … We don’t ask why, we just...